By Gabi Tien '23
It's that time of the year: streets sprinkled with confetti and lions and dragons dancing through crowds. There are big banquet dinners with extended family. There are the festive qipaos worn as red envelopes filled with crisp dollar bills are exchanged. It's Lunar New Year.
Lunar New Year is the new year celebrated by most Asian countries, despite being commonly referred to as Chinese New Year. I've been celebrating Chinese New Year my entire life. My mom's side of the family is Chinese, so we join our relatives to celebrate every year. Unlike the New Year that the world celebrates as the clock strikes midnight and January first rolls in, Chinese New Year occurs on a different day each year because it is dependent on the Lunar calendar. Also, unlike your typical New Year celebration, Chinese New Year lasts for fifteen days!
While we don't have Ryan Seacrest counting down the minutes or anticipate a big illuminated ball dropping, we have our own traditions to introduce and make the New Year special. According to Ms. Ma, NEST+m's very own mandarin teacher, "On New Year’s Eve (除夕, chú xī), we gather with our extended family to enjoy New Year’s Eve reunion dinner (年夜饭, nián yè fàn), very similar to Thanksgiving dinner that Americans have. There are several must-eat foods with different symbolisms. As there are 56 ethnic groups in China, the foods Chinese people eat to celebrate Chinese new year vary across the country." Some traditional foods are delicacies like fish (served with the head and tail!) and nian gao, 年糕, a food I eat with my family as well. Every New Year, my grandparents bring over this traditional cake called nian gao, 年糕. 年糕 directly translates to “rice cake” which may sound unappetizing, but this cake is a sugary, chewy, and decadent treat that does a great job of welcoming a *sweet* new year. Eating this treat can even bring prosperity to the new year!
Another tradition I adore is watching the lion dance in Chinatown as all the firecrackers go off. Firecrackers are so fun and festive, and they are used many times over the course of the fifteen days to enthusiastically welcome the New Year. They are a great way to welcome the dancing dragons on the special day! One of Ms. Ma's traditions is to “stay up late after 12 am. and then [her] dad always goes outside to set off firecrackers to scare away evil spirits and to celebrate the coming of the New Year."
What I love most about Chinese New Year is the unity. With all the well wishes of health and prosperity, it truly feels like each New Year will bring new memories and moments with beloved family and friends. Ms. Ma states, "Personally, Chinese New Year is the time to get reunited with my family and many other relatives that I don’t often get to see. It’s the perfect time to eat, to sleep, to watch TV, to play games, to visit relatives and friends, to shop, and to do anything one likes for seven consecutive days." In agreement, Cindy Wu '22 says, "[Chinese New Year] is significant to me because it marks a new beginning and ignites the feeling of being together with loved ones!" Needless to say, Lunar New Year means so much to us.
I can't wait for Chinese New Year in February! And to all who celebrate — 新年快乐, Happy Chinese New Year!
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